Rapid crystallization of liquid chemical particles in spray form



0d 23, 1969 R. P. INcHAusTl RAPID CRYSTALLIZATION OF LIQUID CHEMICALPART'ICLES IN SPRAY FORM ruled oct 7. 196e /N VEIUTOR.

ROBERTO PLA /NcHAUsT/ 57g i a ATTORNEX United States Patent O U.S. Cl.159-4 2 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus and process forrapid crystallization of a solution which includes ejecting a conicalspray of the solution from a nozzel into a housing from a point adjacentan outlet port at the bottom of the housing upwardly towards an inletport through which a vortex of incoming gas is caused to ow incircumposed relation about the spray to cause droplets to form Whichfall to the outlet port at the bottom; and a closed system for flowingthe fall in a gaseous stream to a separator means where the particulatematter is removed and the gas is recirculated, being directed again tothe inlet of the housing for use in the vortex.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus to rapidlycrystallize chemical products or food products in the form of particlesof a spray in an air aspersion of vortex form circumposed about thespray.

In many cases it is highly desirable -by crystallization methods toseparate the solute rapidly from a solvent, and the present invention isof a method and apparatus or equipment to effectuate the same in aneconomical way without impairing the quality of the product in relationto other processes and apparatus and at an increased rate of productionwhich requires a relatively short time or period for processing.

Thus, one of the objects of the invention is to provide an improvedmethod and apparatus lfor the crystallization of chemical products orfood products of a dec-reased time period for the said crystallization.

An additional object of the instant invention is to provide a method andapparatus for the crystallization of chemical products or food productswith inexpensive apparatus.

Itis also an object of the present method and apparatus to reduce thetime and cost of production of crystalline chemicals or food products inrelation to other procedures or processes to produce similar results inwhich the crystals formed do not adhere to one another.

It is a general object of this invention to provide a process andapparatus of solidifying or crystallizing a liquid chemical intoparticulate form which includes ejecting the chemical in an atomizedspray of droplets in one direction in a chamber and simultaneouslyflowing a mass of air in vortex form circumposed about the spray and ina generally opposite direction to circumferentally cool the spray andcrystallize the same entraining the crystallized particles in a streamthrough an Outlet of the chamber and conducting the stream with thesolidified or crystallized particles to a separator means and thereseparating the crystalline material from the stream for simultaneouscollecting of the crystalline formed chemical and expelling the stream.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved apparatusand process of the type generally described in the preceding paragraphand with improved refinements described more particularly and fullyhereinafter for the purpose of providing an improved crystalline soluteproduct recovered from a chemical solution.

In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparenthereinafter, the instant invention will 3,474,849 Patented Oct. 28, 1969ice now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings inwhich the figure is a side elevation view to illustrate the relativerelationship of the apparatus and the steps of the process now to bedescribed.

Referring to the drawing, wherein the reference to characters theredesignated correspond to those used in the following discussion, andreferring particularly to the right-hand side of the drawing, there isshown and designated by the numeral 1 a storage tank which is providedI"with a feed pipe which includes intermediate the length thereof acontrol valve 2 to regulate the volume of flow therethrough, which ispreferably gravity fed. A blower 4 is also provided to supply a streamof air to an aspersing gun 3 inclu-ding an ejection nozzle disposed onthe axis of a cylindrical chamber defined by a housing 5 having acone-shaped floor with an outlet port and a truncated cone-shaped roofhaving an inlet which will be described hereinafter. The nozzle of thegun 3 is disposed well Within the cone-shape floor area adjacent theoutlet of the chamber and is directed along the longitudinal axis of thechamber 5 toward the inlet 6. A conduit or pipe 7 is provided to connectthe outlet at the vertex of the cone-shaped oor to a separator means 8which in the embodiment shown is a cyclone separator which includes aconical receptacle with a discharge gate means 10. The separator meansor cyclone is connected by means of a pipe 11 connected in the loft ofthe separator means to atmosphere by means of a pipe section 13 with thedraft being caused by means of a suction pump 12'. Referring to theinlet port 6 of the chamber 5, it comprises a plurality of openingsarranged symmetrically about the longitudinal axis of the housing 5,each being provided with a substantially tangentially arranged iin sothat air drawn into the inlet will be imparted with a vortex type orwhirling motion.

In operation, a chemical or solution of a solute to be crystallized ischarged into the storage tank 1 and simultaneously ejected or sprayedthrough the gun 3 in a volume controlled by the valve 2 so as to lbeentrained by the air blown from the blower 4 and ejected into theincoming whirling vortex of cool air so that the spray from the gunintersects the vortex at about the vertex thereof along the axis of thehousing 5 and at the confluence and along the outer surface of thecone-shaped spray so that the particles of the spray are cooled andprecipitate as indicated along the walls of the housing fallingdownwardly to the outlet at the vertex of the cone-shaped floor.Thereafter, the said crystallized particles are entrained by the streamof cool incoming air through the pipe 7 to the separator means 8. In theembodiment shown, the separator means comprises the cyclone separator inwhich the air is swirled around with the particulate matter falling intothe conical receptacle for collection and discharge through the gate 10while the air is drawn by means of the pump 12 for ejection asindicated. It will be noted that ,the counter-current of incomingswirling air is adapted to cool and crystallize the particles of thespray and entrain the same to travel the recovered solute to theseparator means with the air of the vortex comprising a stream of traveland While drying the crystals. It will -be apparent to those skilled inthe art that various temperature controls may be employed in carryingout the process of this invention and preferably the solvent to beatomized or sprayed into the chamber will be at a temperature elevatedwith respect to that of the incoming stream of air in vortex form. Also,in the preferred embodiment a vibrator means is provided to continuouslyduring operation of the process joggle the chamber 5 vibrating the sameto enhance the movement of the particulate matter through the outletport.

The instant invention it will be found results in an especially goodcrystallization or solidification of a hot chemical product with a highsolid concentration. Various types of solutions may be treated inaccordance with the teaching of this patent and in the broad sense theword solution as used is intended to embrace iiowable chemical productsincluding certain mixtures. There results from the operation indicatedby the arrowed lines in the main chamber 5 in the high velocity airejected from the nozzle means intersecting with the incoming vortex ofair, a highly agitated state which serves to maintain the finely dividedstate of the ejected particles with the counter-current of inlet airholding the crystals apart from one another so they do not stick to oneanother or to the walls of the housing 5 whereby the crystallizationprocess is speeded and the particles do not adhere in an undesiredadhering conglomerate mass.

While the instant invention has been shown and described herein in whatis conceived to be a practical and preferred embodiment and process ormethod, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom withinthe scope of the invention, which is therefor not to be limited to thedetails disclosed herein, but is to be accorded the full scope of theclaims so as to embrace any and all equivalent apparatus and articles.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for the rapid crystallization of a solution including: amain generally cylindrical housing having a crystallization chamberdefined therein and having spaced inlet and outlet ports, said inletport being above said outlet port and said outlet port being at thebottom of the housing, ejector nozzle means disposed opposite the inletport and adjacent to and above the outlet port and arranged to eject aspray upwardly toward the inlet port, said inlet port including means toimpart a swirling motion to relatively cold air passing into the chamberin vortex configuration about the upward line of flow from the ejectornozzle; pipe means to connect the said ejector nozzle means to a pointexterior of the housing, said pipe means including a first and a secondsection in parallel, said first section being connected to a storagetank for a solution and said second section being connected to a sourceof high velocity gas; metering means to control the relative volume ofsolution and gas delivered by said pipe means, said sections merging andblending at said nozzle means; separator means included in saidapparatus and having an upper end above the level of said outlet port ofsaid housing and a lower end for separating particulate matter and air,and having an inlet port adjacent said upper end and a first outlet portadjacent said lower end and a second outlet port adjacent said upper endand spaced from said inlet port, said separator means comprising meansto separate by gravity solid particulate matter entrained in a gasstream with the solid particulate matter passing through said firstoutlet and said gas passing through said second outlet with Said streamswirling through said separator means between said inlet port and secondoutlet port; and a closed conduit system including pump means to connectin series the inlet of said housing, said main chamber, the outlet atthe bottom of said housing below said nozzle means, and separator meansto crystallize the solution ejected by said nozzle means into a streamcaused by operation of said pump means, said conduit system including alength connecting the outlet at the bottom of said housing and the inletport of said separator means; and vibrator means to continuously andcyclically move the housing to facilitate fall of the solute particles,said lvibrator means being arranged around the cylindrical portion ofthe chamber intermediate the inlet and outlets.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein a storage tank isconnected to said first section to provide a source of solution and saidstorage tank is disposed above said ejector nozzle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 915,303 3/1909 Mecredy et al.1,985,987 1/1935 Hall. 2,005,238 6/1935 Peebles. 2,054,441 9/1936Peebles. 2,317,479 4/ 1943 Peebles et al. 2,333,333 11/1943 Peeblesetal. 2,413,420 12/1946 Stephanoff. 2,460,546 2/ 1949 Stephanolf.2,800,463 7/ 1957 Morrison. 1,366,712 l/192l Brindle et al. 2,363,2811l/1944 Arnold.

NORMAN YUDKOFF, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 23-273

